Now the playoffs really start for Heat

Admire Chicago, but the Heat's win starts real playoffs

May 15, 2013|Dave Hyde, Sun Sentinel Columnist

MIAMI — — Always, for teams climbing the mountain, there are nights like this, when their breathing's labored, and their opponent plays hard, and there's healthy spasms of doubt if they're who everyone thinks they are.

So it was late into Game 5 of the Heat's 94-91 win Wednesday night to close out the playoff series against Chicago. You expected easy? You got strenuous.

You expected a relaxed evening? You got Heat fans jumping off their seats when Norris Cole hit a jump shot, then ran down the lane with a dunk, to give the Heat a lead for the first time since the second quarter.

You expected the tough question of the night to be whether a hurting Dwyane Wade would play?

The real question was: What would the Heat have done without Wade?

He had a more-efficient shooting night than LeBron James. And the Heat needed every bit of Wade's two short floaters and slam dunk off an offensive rebound in the final minutes to close out this game.

For the last few weeks, the Heat's main competition was boredom as they swept over-matched Milwaukee, gift-wrapped the first game against Chicago's effort and then swept the admirable Bulls into the offseason.

The next time the Heat take the floor, it will be against a healthy opponent, almost certainly Indiana, with some real pieces to make them pay if they continue bringing their B game.

That's why Wade's fourth quarter meant something. His hurting right knee and wayward shooting has hampered him this series. He scored 12 points in the first half but had to go into the locker room in the second half, "to get the knee re-taped,'' he said.

"He came back Superman,'' Chris Bosh said.

It wasn't just his six points down the stretch. He fought Chicago forward Carlos Boozer for an offensive rebound that bounced out of bounds off Boozer with 45 seconds left and the Heat up three points.

On their best nights, that would've been enough. On this night, LeBron drove too far under the rim, had a shot blocked and that gave Chicago a late chance to tie the score.

Weird? Inexplicably weird? This night was that. Like when Chicago shot consecutive airballs to start the night, fell behind 22-4 and led by double digits in the third quarter.

Like when the Heat had a technical free throw to take in the third quarter. Ray Allen, an 89 percent foul shooter this year and one of league's surest in history, gave way to LeBron, who made 76 percent this year. He missed.

The snapshot to what the Heat were up against came midway through the third quarter. On one Chicago possession, Jimmy Butler got two offensive rebounds, Boozer got one, Nate Robinson got one and Joakim Noah muscled in a lay-up.

You have to admire how Chicago worked, believed and often times outhustled the Heat with a minimal lineup. In Chicago, they'll be saying with another healthy body or two this series would be heading back to Chicago.

Maybe they're right. Or maybe the Heat would have just pressed the accelerator a little more to match what the series asked. Just as they did at Wednesday's end.

"We had to drive a stake through them, like a vampire,'' Heat forward Shane Battier said.

There are no almosts this time of year, only absolutes. This series came with a small reminder in the first seconds it was finished that talent only gets you so far in an NBA spring.

You know how teams go out in the playoffs, often despondent as they walk through the tunnel to the locker room? These Bulls didn't do that. Not at first.

As the Heat players celebrated a little on the court after the game, the Bulls gathered near the middle of the court. They huddled up and put their hands in together.

Maybe that's the lesson here. Chicago was a prideful team to the end that played hard together. The Heat had more talent. But after two series of little doubt, they need to bring their top game.